Let
me confess, at the outset, that I am a huge fan of Ravi Subramanian's
books. His 'The Incredible Banker' remains one of my favourite books
till date. I also happened to win an autographed copy of 'Devil In
Pinstripes' in one of the contests on Twitter.
The
blurb of 'God Is A Gamer' states: What happens when you cross gamer,
banker, politician and terrorist with virtual money? From the
bestselling author of If God Was a Banker comes the first ever
bitcoin thriller. God Is a Gamer is a world where money means
nothing, martyrs are villains, predators are prey, assassination is
taught by the ancient Greeks, and nothing is as it seems. Moving from
Washington's Congress to Delhi's finance ministry, the beaches of Goa
to the corporate boardrooms of Mumbai, this is Ravi Subramanian's
most gripping novel yet.
The
premise of the novel is definitely interesting – a thriller that
connects an ATM heist in New York with a website Cotton Trail
which enables transactions in bitcoins to the addictive world of
online gaming and the workings of multinational banks and the hacking
risks they are exposed to. The story connects the murder of a senator
in Washington with the suicide (?) of the CEO of a MNC bank in India
to a hit-and-run case and laptop users getting burnt due to
overheating of their machines. It is quite unusual in the sense that
it moves effortlessly across seemingly disparate incidents and
distinct locations (Washington, Delhi, Mumbai, Goa, Ukraine, New York
City, Sangamner, Stanford, etc.)
The
book is certainly a page-thriller and I finished it in almost one
sitting; the chapters are shorter and crisper compared to his earlier
novels and make for easier reading. I liked how he has incorporated
into the story the tale of how Socrates died; I also liked the way
John Keats' 'Ode to a Nightingale' appeared in the narrative. All
the characters such as Aditya, Varun, Tanya, Swami, Malvika,
Sundeep,etc. were developed quite well with their mannerisms and
intricacies told in a detailed fashion. Ravi has quite intelligently
given the characters real-life names: Vijay Banga (President,
Mastercard International) sounds similar to Ajay Banga, CEO of
Mastercard; Aditya Rao (pioneer in banking in India) sounds similar
to Aditya Puri, MD of HDFC Bank; Malvika Sehgal, CEO of New York
International Bank could be any of the leading female bank CEOs in
India currently – Chanda Kochhar, Shikha Sharma, Kalpana Morparia,
etc.
Ravi
has done quite a bit of research while writing this book –
explaining the intricacies and technicalities of bitcoins (digital
currency which not many are familiar with yet) and online gaming
(including advertising it on Facebook and the manner in which it
generates revenues). However, sometimes it got too technical for me
and I had to re-read entire paragraphs to try and understand what was
being said.
I
felt the author has tried so hard to write about multiple elements
that it has become quite a mish-mash. At times, it became quite
difficult to keep track of who was who and what role that person had
played so far in the story. Combining so many elements into a single
story meant that no story really grew on its own; it seemed as if all
of them were stretched liberally to connect in the end.
Also,
there were quite a few grammatical and spelling errors in the book.
For instance on Page 36, the sentence reads as “It was only on her
mother's insistence that had she come back to India in
the intervening period.” The word deposition is misspelled as
depostion on Page 196. On Page 219, the sentence reads as “She
couldn't take her eyes of the glittering diamond ring.”
Towards the end, it appeared as though the author was in a rush to
finish the book – the last chapter seems to be written hurriedly,
almost in bullet points-like sentences.
All
in all, the book makes a good read but I would not call it one of the
author's best works till date. Read it to enlighten yourself about
the intricate web of online gaming, bitcoins and banks' security
systems.
for http://www.blogadda.com" target="_blank">Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!
1 comment:
firstly before writing the review... i would like to thank sachin and binny bansal for putting up this B-E-A-utiful site. it really was refreshing to dip in the world of books i had not heard of.
now coming on the book... i would like to first say HATS-OFF to the cover designer. When I got the book in my hand, I for 10 minutes kept staring at the cover. What the highlighted RED, the MAOIST sign meant.. was out of my understanding. Then talking about the story, its start with a chapter of a naxalite attack, then the world of credit card and private banks, FRANKLY, i couldnt make the head and tail of the intermediating chapters featuring the naxals, CBI, and the bank being declared enemy of the country, and just enjoyed the constant scenes of the employees crab-pulling each other in the race of being 'seen' as the star performer. Frankly, there should be a thermometer type instrument in the books to scale when the reader feels bored and when the adrenaline shoots up suddenly. :-P i was not gaining much interest in the book till 2/3 of its content, actually due to my science stream and my numbness towards banks and commerce, but later, the way the novel took shape, was INCrediBLE!! the way a bank is tricked into the money laundering scam, the way a bank goes blindly to get the target, the thinking of goras towards indians as a RESOURCE rather being a human... was DHANSU...!! it looks the writer deliberately kept the pace of the book slow halfway, with the suspense about the unrelated chapters alive...
anyways... my heartiest congratulations to the writer about the book...
Post a Comment